URU: PATH OF THE SHELL ARTICLES

February 14, 2008 - Last week we took a look at the adventure genre, a style of game that used to be a defining staple of PC gaming yet over the past decade or so has dropped off the map. Quite frankly, we miss adventure games, and we'd love to see a resurgence of innovation in the genre, driving it forward and allowing us to experience something new. Is such a desire foolish? Have adventure games already run their course, surviving today only as an assembly line of generic treks through oddly similar fantasy worlds and sleuthing adventures aimed at children? The simple answer is no. The more complicated question to ask is, why is nobody paying attention?

February 5, 2008 - It's one of the most venerable genres on the PC, yet one that few on the IGN boards, around our office, or in the general gaming populace seem to care about. And no we're not just making this up -- look at Gametap's decision to axe support for Myst Online: Uru Live, the long-anticipated online adventure game from Cyan Worlds, which even with the branding of adventure gaming's most recognizable franchise could barely survive for more than a year. Many disconnected with the genre's progress since the days of greats like Grim Fandango, Myst and Day of the Tentacle seem unwilling to reinvest, convinced they've already seen the best there is to offer. Yet the genre is moving forward, if ever so slightly, with releases like the second Penumbra game, Black Plague.

July 30, 2004 - Welcome to the dog days of summer, where games come few and far between. With only a handful of games shipping in July it would seem finding a worthy Game of the Month would be difficult. Thanks to an the accelerated development of a very inexpensive football title, that wasn't the case at all in July as our pick for Game of the Month managed to also be one of the best football titles imaginable.

July 26, 2004 - Game developer Cyan Worlds took a risk by releasing Uru: Ages Beyond Myst. The game spat in the face of previous Myst titles and set off in a bold new direction. On the surface, the changes Cyan made to the Myst formula seemed purely cosmetic. Instead of viewing the gameworld through a fixed first person camera, Uru rendered your avatar in full 3D and let players walk, run and jump through gloriously rendered terrain. But the changes went far deeper.

June 1, 2004 - Writing a preview of this sort can get a little tricky. I consider myself a fan of the Uru series. As such, I know exactly how much it sucks when some dolt ruins surprises meant to be pondered, solved, etc. In the name of all things holy and decent, I will continue this preview with an air of vagueness and consideration, lest some crazy Myst fan break into my home and murder my sleeping children. Ok, I really don't have any kids. But you simply do not spoil puzzles or secrets. In all seriousness, the creators of Myst have built the entire franchise upon mystery. The mystery of the ancient D'ni civilization. The mystery of Atrus and Catherine (gifted writers of the game's linking books). And, most obviously, the mystery behind the puzzles.

May 26, 2004 - Ubisoft will soon release the last chunk of the Uru: Ages Beyond Myst saga. The new expansion pack, Uru: The Path of the Shell, will take players deeper into the mythos of the series and offer slightly tweaked gameplay.